Priebus launches $10M outreach program, calls for earlier conventions

posted at 11:21 am on March 18, 2013 by Ed Morrissey

After losing three out of the last four national elections and watching Democrats expand their edge on the demographic curve, the Republican Party has decided to start committing serious resources to making itself part of communities long surrendered to their opposition. On CBS’ Face the Nation yesterday, RNC chair Reince Priebus told Bob Schieffer that the GOP has become the party that “parachutes into communities four months before an election” while Democrats have made themselves “authentic” members of those communities. In response, Priebus announced a $10 million program to start establishing authenticity for Republicans as well:

“We’re going to be announcing a $10 million initiative just this year and it will include hundreds of people, paid across the country, from coast-to-coast, in Hispanic and African-American, Asian communities, talking about our party, talking about our brand, talking about what we believe in,” said Priebus.

Priebus said the workers would be “part of the community on an ongoing basis, paid for by the Republican National Committee to make the case for our party and our candidates.”

The chairman said the party could no longer try to reach out to minority voters only months before an election.

“We have become a party that parachutes into communities four months before an election,” said Priebus. “In comparison to the other side, the Obama campaign lived in these communities for years. The relationships were deep, they were authentic.”

I wrote about this issue after the election and the dismal results of the GOP among non-white voters, many of whom live in urban centers long ceded to Democrats. J.C. Watts made the same point before the election. Republicans cannot just walk into those communities as outsiders a couple of months before an election, talk about free markets and liberty from a 30,000-foot level, and expect anyone to pay attention. The GOP has to be part of those communities and offering policies that address the problems of people in those communities if they expect to win votes there — and they probably have at least a decade’s worth of work just to establish a baseline of credibility and authenticity before results will be seen from the effort.

Priebus also revealed that the RNC would look into reforming its presidential primary process, from the intraparty debates to the scheduling of the convention. The latter is especially a sore point after the primary battle left Mitt Romney unable to spend money in the summer, which gave Barack Obama’s presidential campaign the field to itself all summer long to attack Romney. Priebus wants to put an end to that disadvantage:

“One of the reasons why Mitt Romney was a sitting duck for two months over the summer is under the campaign finance law he couldn’t use money he had already raised until after he received nomination for president in August. I believe that our primary process is way too long. I think our calendar needs to be looked at. I think our debate calendar needs to be shrunk. I think we had way too many debates with our candidates slicing and dicing each other and I think they had to wait too long to get to the convention,” Priebus said.

The GOP chairman told Schieffer the 2012 Republican primary process “hurt” the party and its nominee.

“It hurt because there was no way to control it,” Priebus said. “I mean if you have 10 candidates and nine out of 10 raise their hand and say I’m going to any two hour block offered, well then you have a debate every three days and you’re the only show in town. So while we were playing footsie debating each other 23 times what was the other side doing? They were spending potentially hundreds of millions of dollars on data, technology, voter outreach. They were actually getting the job done.”

To fix the problem, Priebus said he wouldn’t have debates start until the fall of the year before the election.

“I would do one a month, this is me talking now. I would do one a month. I would have more say over the moderators, more say over the debate partners. I would limit the debate to a reasonable amount. I don’t know, maybe 7 or 8, but not 23, Bob,” said Priebus, adding: “That’s ridiculous.”

Conventions used to be held more in mid-summer, but have more recently moved toward the end of August. Ostensibly, this was to have the summer to raise funds and keep a lower profile, but that’s clearly not the environment in which we’re working any longer. However, while Romney obviously operated at a disadvantage last year, it’s not clear that would be the case with convention scheduling in 2016. Both parties will have wide-open primaries, and the eventual nominee will have to spend most of their primary cash to fend off their colleagues. The risk of an earlier convention is message and volunteer burn-out during the general election — not to mention donor exhaustion. (Of course, if we get rid of the artificial structures of campaign-finance reform in favor of immediate transparency, convention scheduling wouldn’t matter at all.)

Priebus is right about the debates, but his own explanation shows how difficult it will be to control that environment. The problem isn’t the party, it’s the candidates, and especially those looking to overcome a perceived recognition deficit (and real fundraising deficits). Second-tier primary hopefuls will volunteer for any TV air time they can get in the hope of raising their profile, and they’re not going to be particular about “debate partners” and moderators, either. How will the RNC enforce discipline on that process, given that some of the likely 2016 candidates — Rand Paul, for instance — will run explicitly as anti-GOP-establishment leaders? Pointing to George Stephanopoulos’ launch of the Team Obama war-on-wimmenses strategy will probably not convince these candidates to take their marching orders from Republican HQ, although it should be an object lesson proving Priebus’ point.

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Earlier convention wasn’t the only thing he called for. His whole frickin strategy is a basically a “how to become a Democrat.” We don’t need to become a Democrat. We need to get some cajones and learn to deal with a hostile media so we can rewrite the narrative that the Democrats have written about us. Simple program.. Rand Paul did it during the filibuster.. How frickin hard is it?

What a bunch of crap. Perfect example of why the RNC/GOP is doomed if we don’t get rid of the elitist sob’s that populate the “leeeeeadeeeerrrrshiiiiiip”. Not one thin dime until they start acting like the conservatives they only profess to be, not one thin dime.

After losing three out of the last four national elections and watching Democrats expand their edge on the demographic curve, the Republican Party has decided to start committing serious resources to making itself part of communities long surrendered to their opposition.

The GOP lost in 2000? Ed, if I wanted liberal talking points I would have gone to TPM.

The Bush Junta writes the script and their ball washer Priebus spits it out. This lightweight chump is bought and paid for.

Presidential primaries the RNC;

*Moved up the florida primary to help Romneycare and his money advantage
*Held the results of the Santorium Iowa primary win for two months to help Romneycare
*Front loaded all primaries to help romneycare
*Played with the Main primary results (didn’t count a quarter of the vote) to show a romneycare vote
*Coordinated all money donors to Romneycare
*Didn’t invite Fmr. 2008 VICE PRESIDENTIAL nominee Sarah palin to the RNC convention so she wouldn’t overshadow Romneycare and because she wasn’t on the reservation (she couldn’t be bought)

He wants to be seen as doing something just like the libs. What are they going to do with the $10M? Is this going to be walking around money, or do they have a specific program in mind. I stopped giving any money to politicians a long time ago. This is one reason why.

Commodore’s primary design assures only the moderate GOP will be heard. Any layout of primaries should have an EQUAL mix early on, NOT just the Midwest and Northeast. Tough to travel? Too bad; reflecting the will of the ENTIRE COUNTRY is worth it.

Oh, give it a rest with your “St. Palin the Victimized” crap. Not everything revolves around the gimmicky candidate from 2008. We are looking forward. We have a great group with Rubio, Cruz, Paul, Ryan, Walker, etc.

Commodore’s primary design assures only the moderate GOP will be heard. Any layout of primaries should have an EQUAL mix early on, NOT just the Midwest and Northeast. Tough to travel? Too bad; reflecting the will of the ENTIRE COUNTRY is worth it.

michaelo on March 18, 2013 at 11:36 AM

Of course, because that is what the elitist want. They want their candidates shoved down the south’s nose. They think the south’s vote is guarnateed so let’s get those moderate squishes in that won’t have a chance in hell of getting the Illinois or New Hampshire votes but makes us elitist feel better about ourselves anyways.

When the GOP decides to stop embracing liberal policies, and return the party to its CONSERVATIVE roots, voters will return. PANDERING to every special interest and minority group divides to party and pushes voters away.

4)four or five rotating regional super primaries, with one state from each region voting a couple weeks prior to the rest of the region, so a little guy can gain some momentum

commodore on March 18, 2013 at 11:27 AM

Trying to steal my idea? I’ve been pushing a timezone Super Primary race since McCain got nominated. Do it roughly by timezone, so the candidates are zig zagging all around the country. They can just go up and down the states as they move across the country. The Primary would be the fist Tuesday of the following month. So, campaigning starts Jan. 1st and every thing is over by May. Do the convention on the first weekend of June and then off to the races.

They can even make it so that you have to win 3 super primaries before having 50% of the delegate vote. That way, almost all the states are important, not just a handful.

How about reaching out to your base first, Rince? That was why you lost the 2012 election. I’m all for appealing to blacks, Hispanics, and Asians(it would help if you didn’t sandbag Allen West, BTW), but if you can’t even get millions of Republicans to the polls in a crucial election against a hated incumbent, that tells me there’s something seriously wrong with the current GOP GOTV infrastructure.

Oh, give it a rest with your “St. Palin the Victimized” crap. Not everything revolves around the gimmicky candidate from 2008. We are looking forward. We have a great group with Rubio, Cruz, Paul, Ryan, Walker, etc.

Enough with the “boo hoo, poor Sarah” stupidity in every thread.

bluegill on March 18, 2013 at 11:38 AM

You really are a dimbulb fish. You do realize that Hill is going to run in 2016. This campaign is going to be a war on woman redux. Might be good if we have as many conservative women on our side even your nemesis Sarah who draws a lot of crowds and money.

I stopped giving any money at all to the GOP years ago, in 08 to be exact. They should really give me a call to find out why, but I digress.

The republican party was elected in huge numbers in 2010 to stop Obamacare from becoming reality. They failed. They almost had the votes in both parties, but they let it sit on the end of the desk collecting dust.. Their job was to fight tooth and nail, day in and day out, to prevent the government over reach of our medical care. I shake my head at him.

When the GOP decides to stop embracing liberal policies, and return the party to its CONSERVATIVE roots, voters will return. PANDERING to every special interest and minority group divides to party and pushes voters away.

Pork-Chop on March 18, 2013 at 11:40 AM

What they don’t get is that special interest groups are endless. Minority groups are endless. Once we cave on the gays. Dems will find another special interest group that the GOP is intolerant of. Until we stop caving and learn to deal with the narrative; we have solved NOTHING..

When the GOP decides to stop embracing liberal policies, and return the party to its CONSERVATIVE roots, voters will return. PANDERING to every special interest and minority group divides to party and pushes voters away.

Everyone loved Mitt Romney: He is rich; out of touch; a New England patrician; educated at the Kremlin on the Charles that hates middle America; a known quantity to the Establishment (his daddy was governor!); and completely lacks charisma or any hint of cool.

Romney even endured hardship living in that Third World slum known as Paris, France as a young man.

Am I the only one that think Priebus has done a lousy job? If he were running my company with those results over the past few years, he would be out.

The senate was winnable and so was the white house and he didn’t even come close.

Also, he thinks this is all just a branding issue? Give me a break. A good product doesn’t need to be marketed. A good product (i.e., conservatism) sells itself.

nazo311 on March 18, 2013 at 11:39 AM

It depends on what you’re looking for out of a RNC chairman. The bottom line for me is winning elections and in that respect he was a failure. In terms of raising money and closing the massive budget deficit Michael Steele left him with, he did very well. But that don’t mean squat if in the end you lose Senate and House seats and fail to win back the Presidency. Ironically you could argue that Steele was MORE successful as RNC chairman given how the 2010 midterms turned out(although it’s fair to say the Tea Party did way more that year for the GOP than he ever did).

This is exactly what the party needs to do…we should have owned the environment argument, energy, immigration, education, “welfare”, all of these things we know best how to integrate them into a successful programs.
But we needed to do it at the grass roots level, not a bunch of shirt and tie guys telling us, like that stated, four months before election what great ideas we have.

We, with our education focus and ideas, should have never relinquised that to the dems…and like losing any “customer” it takes ten times the effort to convince them to come back.

But we need to make that investment…show all the people (education as an example) that our ideas are best, work the best, and accomplish goals that the dems only promise, but never fulfill.

I am excited about this “revelation”, that we are the best people with the best ideas for all the people, and that our ideas not only make the country prosperous, but sustain society with care and concern.

We need to campaign among Hispanic, black, Asian, and gay
Americans and demonstrate we care about them, too. ”

… brilliant!

ZachV on March 18, 2013 at 11:44 AM

(rolling my eyes)

Government doesn’t care about XYZ.. Republicans need to campaign that the best possible outcome is the government out of the lives of people allows gays, hispanic, blacks etc. to care for their OWN. If those groups don’t recognize that message and want to live on the Dem plantation of government intrusion- Meh!

Agree with your other points, but disagree strongly here. As long as primary elections are paid for by taxpayers, they all ought to be open primaries. Making me pay the costs for any election in which I cannot vote (goes for Dem primaries) is taxation without representation.

The earlier the candidate can get their hands on the money, the better. So yes move up the convention.
It may have been an anomaly, but 23 debates is ridiculous. But they also have to be structured so the questions are on actual issue, not BS media talking points.

I think closed primaries are a good idea, but only if parties pay for them themselves. As long as it is taxpayers footing the bill for primaries, everyone ought to be able to vote in every party primary in their state/district.

Conventions used to be held more in mid-summer, but have more recently moved toward the end of August. Ostensibly, this was to have the summer to raise funds and keep a lower profile, but that’s clearly not the environment in which we’re working any longer.

The reason given, ad nauseum, was

1. People are “on vacation” in the summer

2. No one pays attention until “after Labor Day”

3. No one pays attention until “the kids are back in school”

It was typical suburban whiteyville 90′s thinking about how the country operates.

Bury them in ads and you’ll win because no one knows anything.

It was quintessential Rovian dismissive condescension.

Rinse thinks by maintaining more control over the GOP “message” they’ll win.

…and that is Frank Luntz logic in full effect.

Pat Caddell, more than anyone else, spoke the truth at CPAC. It’s the same group of people, playing the same game, to keep the same pot o’ gold in their hands.

Rand or no one. If Rubio even wants to be back in consideration, he better be ready to slice the Bush Dynasty into pieces.

Commodore’s primary design assures only the moderate GOP will be heard. Any layout of primaries should have an EQUAL mix early on, NOT just the Midwest and Northeast. Tough to travel? Too bad; reflecting the will of the ENTIRE COUNTRY is worth it.

michaelo on March 18, 2013 at 11:36 AM

The order of which region goes first would rotate each election cycle.

There’s no way around the state/region that goes first having more impact. Unless you want AZ/IA/SC/NH all on the same day, which will be hard on a less funded candidate.

Trying to steal my idea? I’ve been pushing a timezone Super Primary race since McCain got nominated. Do it roughly by timezone, so the candidates are zig zagging all around the country. They can just go up and down the states as they move across the country. The Primary would be the fist Tuesday of the following month. So, campaigning starts Jan. 1st and every thing is over by May. Do the convention on the first weekend of June and then off to the races.

oooh I like this idea, only thing is you want each region to have a relatively equal number of delegates. Otherwise the candidates spend all their time in the biggest region. Mountain time zone would be relatively worthless

It’s impossible to enforce discipline on debates, but the big fish running for the nomination shoudln’t be afraid to not show up for every debate. When you walk onstage with a second-tier halfwit like Rick Santorum, he’s the only candidate who benefits.

I like the idea of early conventions and getting the nomination process over with quickly. As someone else pointed out, the GOP should (strongly) encourage states holding primaries to close voting to everyone but registered party members.

It’s way past time the GOP recognized demographic reality and started tooling its messaging strategy to appeal to non-whites. It doesn’t need to abandon its small govt principles, but it does need to tell people how limited govt makes everyone more prosperous and free, not less.

Everyone loved Mitt Romney: He is rich; out of touch; a New England patrician; educated at the Kremlin on the Charles that hates middle America; a known quantity to the Establishment (his daddy was governor!); and completely lacks charisma or any hint of cool.

Romney even endured hardship living in that Third World slum known as Paris, France as a young man.

I mean, what’s there not to like?

Punchenko on March 18, 2013 at 11:45 AM

But on the flipside, Obama went to private school in Hawaii and Ivy League universities all throughout his 20s. He has a house in Hyde Park(thanks to the assistance of a convicted slumlord) and his wife had a cushy 300 grand a year job at a hospital which involved the dumping of poor patients.

Point is there was no reason the GOP couldn’t have portrayed the Obamas as out-of-touch elitists. And all the stuff I listed predates their first 4 years in the White House. Good God, look at how much material they gave Republicans to work with given all the parties, vacations, golf outings, Hollywood and Wall Street schmoozing, and Vegas fundraisers the day after terrorist attacks.

Instead what did we get? Pansy ass stuff like “he’s a nice guy, but…”. Even now after the sequester nonsense, we still have Boehner saying on live TV that he completely trusts Obama. You can’t win national elections if you allow the other side to trash your candidates while refusing to retaliate against theirs.

Voter lists, telephone numbers, active party members, active voters, likely voters…and republicans are often on their own to start campaigns without any of this. Then they have to spend usually their own money out of their own pocket or the campaigns to start making a list of donors, sponsors, voters…and then of course, they don’t want to share it with anyone because no one helped them, and they paid for their info and own it.

Am I the only one that think Priebus has done a lousy job? If he were running my company with those results over the past few years, he would be out.

The senate was winnable and so was the white house and he didn’t even come close.

Also, he thinks this is all just a branding issue? Give me a break. A good product doesn’t need to be marketed. A good product (i.e., conservatism) sells itself.

nazo311 on March 18, 2013 at 11:39 AM

I’ve been bitching about Rinse since he got the job.

He has the hand-picked choice of a bunch of right bigoted whiteys who couldn’t stand Steele as the GOP spokesperson.

As I said at the time – if you thought removing Steele for some generic white guy was not going to effect the image of the GOP, you were either nuts or had a problem with a black guy in charge.

The logic was simple – Steele was going to appear on every MSM and Prog TV show because he needs the exposure. The trade off for the exposure, was every time he was one, the left would get to point out the GOP removed the first black head of the RNC.

Steele did twice the job Rinse did, but Rinse gets to keep his job because he’s a slavish white guy.

As I suggested at the time, Rinse should work the financial end and Steele should have been the outreach/PR/talk shows.

But now, it should be a committee with Jindal, Ben Carson and Herman Cain as members.

Agree with your other points, but disagree strongly here. As long as primary elections are paid for by taxpayers, they all ought to be open primaries. Making me pay the costs for any election in which I cannot vote (goes for Dem primaries) is taxation without representation.

AngusMc on March 18, 2013 at 11:47 AM

As Rush proved with Operation Chaos (yes, Hilary didn’t win, but that whole primary session prolonged everything for the DNC and only helped to enable Obama’s campaign), the concept of open primaries is a mistake. Both the Dems and the GOP should do away with it.

It could be argued that Rick Santorum in 2012 and Mike Huckabee in 2008 did have some influence with crossover Dems intent on sabotaging the primaries for the GOP by supporting a borderline mainstream big-government, ultra-social conservative that couldn’t get a majority of the rank-and-file GOP. (Not that anyone else was capable of it; in both cases, the eventual nominee got the nod through attrition).

And then there’s Todd Achin’. ‘Nuff said.

Plus can we finally rid New Hampshire and Iowa of their underserving “first primaries” status?

However, while Romney obviously operated at a disadvantage last year, it’s not clear that would be the case with convention scheduling in 2016. Both parties will have wide-open primaries, and the eventual nominee will have to spend most of their primary cash to fend off their colleagues.

Don’t make assumptions like that. Assume that the Democrats will unite behind Hillary quickly and have virtually unlimited resources to campaign for her all throughout 2016, while the Republicans remain divided until later in the primary season, and be prepared for that situation.

Then, if the Democrats are more divided than we expected, or the Republicans are more unified than we expected, we can be pleasantly surprised, rather than being caught unawares by the fact that the Democrats settled on Hillary before January was over.

This thread is proof the GOP Party started in the wrong place. The first thing that needs to be done is to heel our internal divisions.

Physician, heal thyself.

Until that is done and we stop fighting each other, get familiar with the view from the outside.

You can appeal to Hispanic and other minority communities till the cows come how. But if you don’t have a comprehensive and easily communicated philosophy backed up by a larger community of party members, you are just wasting time.

Whistling by the graveyard is not a sign of courage. It’s a sign of conscious avoidance.

That goes for all sides, no matter how you label yourself. Unless we ultimately stand together as simply Republicans, without all the “nose-holding” metaphors, we won’t win. Period.

4)four or five rotating regional super primaries, with one state from each region voting a couple weeks prior to the rest of the region, so a little guy can gain some momentum

- Iowa, 1st week in Jan.

commodore on March 18, 2013 at 11:27 AM

If you’re going to guarantee Iowa the first slot, I don’t even want to listen to the rest of your proposed schedule.

If you remember from 2012, the Iowa Republican Party couldn’t even manage to count the votes properly in their own caucus — they originally announced Mitt had won, then 16 days later took it back and declared Rick the winner. And Ron Paul wound up with the most delegates from Iowa anyway!

This thread is proof the GOP Party started in the wrong place. The first thing that needs to be done is to heel our internal divisions.

Physician, heal thyself.

Until that is done and we stop fighting each other, get familiar with the view from the outside.

You can appeal to Hispanic and other minority communities till the cows come how. But if you don’t have a comprehensive and easily communicated philosophy backed up by a larger community of party members, you are just wasting time.

Whistling by the graveyard is not a sign of courage. It’s a sign of conscious avoidance.

That goes for all sides, no matter how you label yourself. Unless we ultimately stand together as simply Republicans, without all the “nose-holding” metaphors, we won’t win. Period.

Marcus Traianus on March 18, 2013 at 12:08 PM

I don’t think the conservatives are who need to be preached at here.

There is disunion within the party. But the leadership (including Reince) wants it that way. They don’t want us, and feel they would be better off without us in any way, shape or form. They are intent on destroying the party through and through, and making us out to be the culprits.

Until the leadership and the elites in the GOP are silenced into submission or kicked out altogether, they will never win any national elections in any of our lifetimes.

BTW, I am a CONSERVATIVE first, a Catholic second, and a Republican third.

You can appeal to Hispanic and other minority communities till the cows come how. But if you don’t have a comprehensive and easily communicated philosophy backed up by a larger community of party members, you are just wasting time.

The support for an immigration overhaul is part of a $10 million outreach effort that Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus formally unveiled Monday. The outreach will begin this year, well ahead of the 2014 midterm elections.

But on the flipside, Obama went to private school in Hawaii and Ivy League universities all throughout his 20s. He has a house in Hyde Park(thanks to the assistance of a convicted slumlord) and his wife had a cushy 300 grand a year job at a hospital which involved the dumping of poor patients.

Doughboy on March 18, 2013 at 11:53 AM

I know, but they really played up having to *work* for all of those nice things.

Mooch and others talked about their student loans, the rusted out car, dumpster-diving for furniture, the works. We heard about Mooch’s working-class parents; Barry’s single mother and being raised by grandparents; tales of woe, etc. And to top it all off, they trotted out Clinton to give his folksy aw-shucks routine.

Who did we have? No one — no one because we have to keep the disastrous Bush duo in the closet. Well, scratch that — they did run a tribute video and gave Jeb an uninspiring speaking slot on education.

Point is there was no reason the GOP couldn’t have portrayed the Obamas as out-of-touch elitists. And all the stuff I listed predates their first 4 years in the White House. Good God, look at how much material they gave Republicans to work with given all the parties, vacations, golf outings, Hollywood and Wall Street schmoozing, and Vegas fundraisers the day after terrorist attacks.

Doughboy on March 18, 2013 at 11:53 AM

The GOP had plenty of opportunities and missed all of them.

Being the sensible party of the middle class and not the party of crony capitalist Big Business and Government — which is exactly what the Democrats are — would have been the winning strategy. And part of being the sensible party of the middle class requires running candidates from the South, West, or Midwest who share that background while *reminding* voters how much the Democrats look down on them as the hoi polloi.

It really is the Country Party vs. the Ruling Class, only the GOP picks members of the Ruling Class on our side to represent the interests of the Country Party (us).

Instead what did we get? Pansy ass stuff like “he’s a nice guy, but…”. Even now after the sequester nonsense, we still have Boehner saying on live TV that he completely trusts Obama. You can’t win national elections if you allow the other side to trash your candidates while refusing to retaliate against theirs.

Doughboy on March 18, 2013 at 11:53 AM

It’s either “he’s a nice guy, but…” or some Hannity-esque nonsense that hits the scandal page for a day and then evaporates. And why does it evaporate? Why, because we don’t control the media, which is something the GOP has yet to understand.

Democrats — and the movement left, in general — makes politics a paid profession and an art. For them politics is a profession you can major in and make a career of. For the movement right and the GOP, it’s a hobby that you partake in a few months before an election.

THAT HAS TO CHANGE.

The GOP and the right needs to start spending $$$ training full-time activists who will be on the ground in Red State America seeking out every vote and turning it out at every election. We need to start organizing our own communities before trying to take on the Democrats in their own communities. Politics has to become 24/7 for the right as it is for the left if we’re going to beat ‘em.

There is very little in the report about how Republicans can improve their performance in the media. The only relevant recommendation is that “Republican leaders should participate in and actively prepare for interviews with The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, MTV and magazines such as People, UsWeekly, etc.”–left-leaning outlets that are often hostile and which are useless in mobilizing the core conservative voter base.

That is not to say Republicans should avoid those outlets, but to focus on them is also a mistake. The primary key to the Obama campaign’s success in 2012 was that it brought the Democrats’ base to the polls. Mitt Romney won independents in 2012, but lost the election. Until Republicans improve their communication with their own base–reaching out through conservative media, and new media in particular–their message will be lost.

Instead, the report recommends that Republicans reach out to organizations such as the NAACP–ignoring the fact that the NAACP’s policies are decidedly radical and do not even represent public opinion in the black community on issues such as voter ID and school reform. At the same time, the report implies that the GOP should back away from “Third-party groups that promote purity” (54)–an apparent swipe at the Tea Party.

Gee, Ed, you kinda decided just to skip right over all the things he said that would rowl your audience up into a virtual frothing madness. That report comes out and all you mention is the idea of changing up the primary and convention structure?

Hoping your readers won’t dig deeper and that they won’t worry about what Priebus is doing or proposing?

The fact that he endorsed changing up the primary is basically a footnote in the report as far as importance goes when compared to his recommendations and musings on altering stances on the issues of the day and how indeed the Republican party comes off too old, too white, too closed minded, and combative.

Yes, I love how spiteful wonderful that makes you happy, doesn’t it. Happy election day trying to replace all those social conservatives. And happy election day when the left moves even more left and finds you intolerant when they find their next victim group to support i.e., transgenders or polygamous marriage.. One of these days you squishes are going to have to draw a line somewhere– and then you will be the “social conservatives..

Why do people keep deluding themselves into believing that this electorate can be helped?

While 2008 can be explained as a mistate, 2012 cannot. The voters (by HUGE margins) chose Obama over a vastly superior candidate… “because he cared more about voters like them.” Folks, that doesn’t come from the GOP or the DNC’s messaging. That’s straight out of Oprah’s couch. It’s the culture. And we don’t control the means to shape it.

Wake up! There are more bought-off, un- & maleducated, lazy, aggrieved, and distracted voters in this country than there are civic-minded citizens. We are, to borrow a phrase, boned.

The GOP lost in 2000? Ed, if I wanted liberal talking points I would have gone to TPM.

thebrokenrattle on March 18, 2013 at 11:32 AM

I think the point is that the GOP lost the popular vote in 2000.

It is also true that the GOP has now lost the popular vote in 5 of the last 6 presidential elections. Not good.

Blaming any individual or course of action is nonsense. We have practically every institution in America allied against the GOP and conservative thought: MSM; public education system; nearly all of academia; Hollywood and broader entertainment culture; environmental and gay rights movements; pro-abortion lobby; crony capitalists; organized labor; and much more.

Yes, I love how spiteful wonderful that makes you happy, doesn’t it. Happy election day trying to replace all those social conservatives. And happy election day when the left moves even more left and finds you intolerant when they find their next victim group to support i.e., transgenders or polygamous marriage.. One of these days you squishes are going to have to draw a line somewhere– and then you will be the “social conservatives..
melle1228 on March 18, 2013 at 12:37 PM

And when a group of people spend years shunning anyone and everyone who doesn’t fall in line completely with you, and soon enough you find yourselves with no allies. Sure, you might have your priciples. But you tend to lose friends and support when those “principles” are all zero compromise stances that the vast majority of the people don’t believe need to be quite that hard edged. You can’t force the world to adhere to your prescriptions from the minority. And you poison any possible ally relationship by tearing anyone and everyone apart the minute you find out that they’re not full on just like you.

This is the result. Maybe I’ll be in your position too someday. But it’s not like people didn’t try to talk you down off the ledge the entire time.

You just shunned, belittled, and disavowed them. So… You know, good going I suppose. You guys have told everybody that’s come along, “We don’t need you”, when they strayed. I guess you get your chance to prove it.

As Rush proved with Operation Chaos (yes, Hilary didn’t win, but that whole primary session prolonged everything for the DNC and only helped to enable Obama’s campaign), the concept of open primaries is a mistake. Both the Dems and the GOP should do away with it.

Myron Falwell on March 18, 2013 at 12:03 PM

If you want closed primaries, the parties should pay the costs for them, not the taxpayers. Right now it is the taxpayers footing the bill for party elections.

. But you tend to lose friends and support when those “principles” are all zero compromise stances that the vast majority of the people don’t believe need to be quite that hard edged

LOL– I love it. At every turn, we have been told we must change on gay marriage or lose even though most state have voted it down. And yet it is us who are hard edged.

You can’t force the world to adhere to your prescriptions from the minority

Apparently you can. When 2% of the population can change 1000 of year of tradtion then apparently you can.

This is the result. Maybe I’ll be in your position too someday. But it’s not like people didn’t try to talk you down off the ledge the entire time.

Actually you are already in my position. You think Rob Portman was welcomed open arms by the gay community. Nope, he wasn’t. He was shunned because of the R behind his name. The lawsuits have already started, but you people are too busy being tolerant that you can’t see what is in front of your face. Happy Stockholm syndrome.

You just shunned, belittled, and disavowed them. So… You know, good going I suppose. You guys have told everybody that’s come along, “We don’t need you”, when they strayed. I guess you get your chance to prove it.

Genuine on March 18, 2013 at 12:56 PM

Actually no sweetie that is your line. You don’t need us. I live in a Repub super majority state. I live in a state which will be one of the last few that will ever accept gay marriage. And when it does, it will throw out anti-discrimination lawsuits.

Blaming any individual or course of action is nonsense. We have practically every institution in America allied against the GOP and conservative thought: MSM; public education system; nearly all of academia; Hollywood and broader entertainment culture; environmental and gay rights movements; pro-abortion lobby; crony capitalists; organized labor; and much more.

matthew8787 on March 18, 2013 at 12:52 PM

This is absolutely dead spot on. We have not lost the general population, the individuals whom these institutes impact, but, those institutions do have a profound ability to influence the general population, and they do so repeatedly with half-truths, lies, deceptions and innuendos.

Their sway over the general population is not absolute, it is not complete or total. But it is powerful and most importantly, it is totally inclusive. It cuts across all political, economic, ethnic and social boundaries. Their ability to sway to general public is not restricted to the so called “Low Information” voter, nor is it exclusive to the swing voter.

One needs look no further than the republicans who dislike or even hate Sarah Palin to see just how powerful the Fifth Column Treasonous Media’s propaganda is. Mitt Romney lost by some 3 million votes, not because Obama was able to get more voters to the polls, but because the Fifth Column Treasonous Media was able to convince 7 to 8 million voters to stay home.

As a lifelong Democrat, I have a mental picture these days of my president, smiling broadly, at the wheel of a speeding convertible. His passengers are Democratic elected officials and candidates. Ahead of them, concealed by a bend in the road, is a concrete barrier.

They didn’t have to take that route. Other Democratic presidents have won bipartisan support for proposals as liberal in their time as some of Mr. Obama’s are now. Why does this administration seem so determined to head toward a potential crash and burn?

And the gop will nominate another pale pastel big government loving nominee that will try to be a give-away but will be out freebied by the Communist Democrat candidate.

Yup, as long as the national treasury can be raided to pay for votes. Once the treasury has been emptied, and our economy destroyed, the democrats will distribute the addresses of the 1% and suggest the Gimmiecrats collect their entitlements directly.

3) no MSM moderated primary debates unless you want to spend the entire time discussing birth control

4)four or five rotating regional super primaries, with one state from each region voting a couple weeks prior to the rest of the region, so a little guy can gain some momentum

- Iowa, 1st week in Jan.

- entire Midwest region, 3rd week in Jan

- NH, 1st week in Feb

- entire Northeast region, 3rd week in Feb

- SC, 1st week in March

- entire South region, 3rd week in March

- AZ, 1st week in April

- entire West region, 3rd week in April

- convention in late June/early July

commodore on March 18, 2013 at 11:27 AM

Keep in mind that what the RNC just put out is an autopsy report. Dr Frankenstein’s prescription for reviving the monster is to be more like the Democrats – to rebrand the GOP as the democratic mini-me party on illegal immigration, entitlements etc.

Instresting that last weekend, Brent Bozell, Phylis & Sarah talked about reiterating and sticking to constitution/conservative principles over the pandering smoke and mirrors that is rebranding. And on cue comes this dreck emphasizing money & rebranding.

The brand doesn’t have a problem vis a vis the product, it has a marketing problem with consultant(s) that don’t believe in the product.

As to your 4 steps, it’s a start, but the effect is a flatliner popping everytime the paddles get applied. If you want to engage the base, you have to use a primary tally system that best reflects the will of each participant and the only way to do that is a ranking ballot.

That means if there are 3, 5 or even 10 candidate on the cacus slate or primary ballot, each voter gets to rank their preference. Let’s use 5 candidates as an example:

You’d rank your #1 candidate as a 5, 4 for your second, 3 for your 3rd choice and so on. But you don’t have to assign a ranking for someone you don’t like at all, so if Jared Huntsman and DeeDee Scuzzyfava were also on the ballot, you could assign a “0″ to them.

Now when the ballots are tallied up, the person with the most wins – doesn’t matter if it’s winner takes all or proportional. Also no need for an expensive run-off.

So what if we have a scenario where someone mistakenly ranks 2 or more equally. In that case, that tally drops to the lowest average numerator. For example with the above, I mistakenly give two people the same ranking of 4, when it should have been 4 for one and 3 for the other, in that case, the tally drops to the lowest common numerator of “3″. Likewise, if one was to give all 5 a ranking of 5, then the vote value is 1 each.

This method ensures that votes are split between two popular choices while a 3rd so-so runs away with the win, ie Todd Akin.

Do that and you will see improved turnout for the primaries as now everyone can see their vote as actually counting for something. This beats any of the systems we have now, to include the current caucus process.

The fact you started with that type of a declarative statement argues otherwise.

Notwithstanding that my statement was not meant to be “preachy”, it was a statement of fact. A house divided against itself will not stand.

Until every faction of this party agrees to sit down at a summit and work through their differences, the party will be a failure. No voter wants to live in the Balkans.

That doesn’t mean you will get everything you want. Nor does it mean you bring your “it’s my way or the highway” attitude. It means we start negotiating towards how we will together meet our objectives.

Ummm, excuse me, Miss? I didn’t even mention the words “gay marriage”. Is that the only prism you view the world through? No, it’s much deeper than just that issue. There’s a whole “hard core conservative” platform that every plank must be adhered to stringently or else you’re out.

Furthermore, on THAT issue, it’s not just the 4% percent(by gallup’s 2011 opinion), it’s their families, their friends, and people that don’t even know them but see no reason that they should be cast down as family destroying, Marx loving, subversive degenerates.

And the same goes for immigrants, the poor, and normal people who just happen to not live their life mainlined into advertising salesmen on AM radio.

Sure, they see problems. In many cases the republican party DOES have good fixes they agree with. MOST don’t consider themselves “liberal”. But they don’t want to jump on board with the good parts because it means signing on and having your name represented by the rest of it as well.

This is about the “TrueCons”. That means vastly more than JUST gay issues.

Okay, can somebody tell me something…..does the Republican party have a manifest of what exactly they believe? I’m very confused. I thought we were Conservative in our thinking but now I have to wonder. This Joker is talking about Immigration Reform and becoming more like the dems, so what is the purpose of being a Republican? Where are the Conservative ideals we used to be so proud of? I want a list of where we stand on all the issues….were can I find one? If this is the new/improved party, thanks but no thanks.

Instresting that last weekend, Brent Bozell, Phylis & Sarah talked about reiterating and sticking to constitution/conservative principles over the pandering smoke and mirrors that is rebranding. And on cue comes this dreck emphasizing money & rebranding.

The brand doesn’t have a problem vis a vis the product, it has a marketing problem with consultant(s) that don’t believe in the product.

AH_C on March 18, 2013 at 1:19 PM

The GOP Establishment is led by a cadre of George McClellan’s and Ambrose Burnside’s. General McClellan was nearly unsurpassed in his brilliance with respect to how to build a powerful effective fighting force, yet was an unmitigated disaster when it came to actually employing that fighting force on the battlefield.

General Burnside suffered from similar problems, if left where his indisputable talents laid, he would have been remembered as a great General, but sadly, he was promoted beyond his abilities, a fact that Burnside himself was both fully aware of and made perfectly clear to his superior officers.

The problem we face today is, that the McClellan’s and Burnside’s leading the GOP appear to be completely lacking the self knowledge or candor of either McClellan and Burnside. They have not been thrust into positions beyond their capabilities by desperate leaders, but have cawed their way to those positions with no regards to what their true strengths or weaknesses are.

Ummm, excuse me, Miss? I didn’t even mention the words “gay marriage”. Is that the only prism you view the world through? No, it’s much deeper than just that issue. There’s a whole “hard core conservative” platform that every plank must be adhered to stringently or else you’re out.

Furthermore, on THAT issue, it’s not just the 4% percent(by gallup’s 2011 opinion), it’s their families, their friends, and people that don’t even know them but see no reason that they should be cast down as family destroying, Marx loving, subversive degenerates.

And the same goes for immigrants, the poor, and normal people who just happen to not live their life mainlined into advertising salesmen on AM radio.

Sure, they see problems. In many cases the republican party DOES have good fixes they agree with. MOST don’t consider themselves “liberal”. But they don’t want to jump on board with the good parts because it means signing on and having your name represented by the rest of it as well.

This is about the “TrueCons”. That means vastly more than JUST gay issues.

And I believe Rand Paul may prove to be your cryptonite.

Genuine on March 18, 2013 at 1:31 PM

And I used gay marriage because it is one of the hammers being used against the people who the elitist considers dinosaurs.

And it is still 4% of the population changing marriage to suit their needs whether or not their families agree with it or not. And it isn’t just about marriage; it about lawsuits, and legislation and parental rights. See how it is all panning out in Massachusetts for a good future reference of what happens when gay marriage is legalized in a state.

I have to laugh. Do you not see your bigotry at all. I happen to like Rand Paul. See if you actually talked to any of us “True Cons” you might know that, but you live in your own world of what you think we all think..

Furthermore, the Republican party espouses something. If you all want to change the platform- be my guest. But when we see Republicans directly opposed to the REPUBLICAN PLATFORM and call them on it; don’t get miffed. If we wanted to vote Democrat; we would vote Democrat.

This is about the “TrueCons”. That means vastly more than JUST gay issues.

And I believe Rand Paul may prove to be your cryptonite.

Genuine

Ahh yes, we lost two straight elections because we nominated a couple of “TrueCons”, lol.

And the same goes for immigrants, the poor, and normal people who just happen to not live their life mainlined into advertising salesmen on AM radio.

By George, I think you’ve just stumbled upon the solution to our problems: We have to become democrats. Why hasn’t anyone thought of that before? Thank goodness we have folks like you around to show us the error of our ways, lol.